Having only 4 pages of apps, I can already see what I need to see simply by being on the home page. So, to me, having an inline history of all notifications is really not bringing all that much to the table. I understand your point and I always welcome the tweaks and enhancements that come down the pike, but this feature doesn't do all that much for me. That's not to say i couldn't be convinced otherwise.

I must be a heavier user than you. I can't tell you how many times I've been sing my iPhone and a popover notification came up and I closed it before getting read it having no way to tell what app it was from without going into all my apps that se notifications. It was nice when SMS was the only thing that used it, but the design was shortsighted.

On the other side of the coin, is your messages piling up. The popover can barely show two and usually not completely. Having them stored in central repository for you to see them in a timeline associated with each app without having to scour your home screens and access each app to read them is simply something needed at this point.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

I think Apple would be wise to look at the Home Page of the iPhone and over a similar type of Live Update facility. It would be useful to see how many emails, IM's, Texts, Phone calls etc, without having all the individual Apps required at the moment. More integration of contact info as well.

Apple can always learn from others and improve.

Yes, Apple definitely can learn from others and improve. But mostly they march to their own well researched beat. All of the things you mention above I already have and I would imagine, so do you. And re the mutli-tasking complaint - I think that is a user experience choice first and foremost from Apple's pov. Simplicity is the most important feature of the iPhone. It ensures everyone can use it right out of the box.

But I too think the home screen is ready for a refresh. It definitely could be smarter. It would be great to have the ability to customize it with live feeds of my choice as suggested in the MS version and I like the 'social' integration.

I gotta say I kind of like the idea of a search button. To get to search within the iphone is a pain.

I must be a heavier user than you. I can't tell you how many times I've been sing my iPhone and a popover notification came up and I closed it before getting read it having no way to tell what app it was from without going into all my apps that se notifications. It was nice when SMS was the only thing that used it, but the design was shortsighted.

On the other side of the coin, is your messages piling up. The popover can barely show two and usually not completely. Having them stored in central repository for you to see them in a timeline associated with each app without having to scour your home screens and access each app to read them is simply something needed at this point.

Yeah, it sounds like you're a much heavier user than me. Hopefully we'll see some cool things in iPhone OS4.0 that may address some of your concerns.

Rather a bad copy then a real innovation, too little too late to gain market share over the Iphone.
The upsmuck is maybe good looking, but when you want to connect to a wireless network you will find no doubt the real ms-shitty menu's, which no one will ever understand, except the techs from Seattle.
No it is time for us too laugh loud as Balmer on this new product.
To make a joke, where is the ctrl=alt-del button

I have to agree. I didn't like the way it appears to free scroll so you end up with half-tiles or whatever their calling them showing up on the screen, along with random edge text from the bits that don't fit on the page. I can only suppose they did this to mimic a long web page, but it doesn't make sense for a 'desktop' to do this. My first impression was that the UI was ugly.

As to the 'live' bit, I'm not sure how this is different than the numbers next to your phone, e-mail, and text messages in the iPhone GUI. I can only assume the Berry does something similar. As to the pics, I don't care to have my pics showing up in mini-thumbnails on my main desktop. They are not all meant for public consumption

One touch from the home screen takes you to search. Two (separate) touches from any other screen takes you to search, regardless of what you have the double-tap set to. You can also set the double-tap to take you to search making it even faster from non-home screens.

Therefore, to say that it's "hard" to get to search on an iPhone is a complete misrepresentation.

I'm not talking about double-clicking the home button, I'm talking about hitting it once to go to the home page and again to go to the search page. My phone is set to go to my phone favorites when I double-click the home button. You can do both.

Holy crap! Never again will us Apple fanbois have to endure taunts of style over substance. That interface is just ridiculous. The hyperactive animations are SO annoying. "Gee. Those animations on the new Apple iPhone are cool. Lets AMP THEM UP TO 11!" Everything jiggles, twists, bounces, rotates; FOR NO REASON! Pointless eye-candy to the Max.

Seriously ridiculous. I understand the rationale behind the 'motion' and the 'floating' (kids of today, the 'cloud' etc) interface but the lack of a notional physical anchor and the partial obscuration of menu items to suggest off-screen content is just nuts. It doesn't work. They'll be studying this in HCI labs for years.

Do I think Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 would be successful, I don't doubt it. But Microsoft made several mistakes and past histories that might hamper the platform's success .

1) The release date is a mistake for several reasons . Apple's iPhone generation 4 would be released around May-June with a new iPhone operating system at the same time. Goggle's Android platform which is more nimble in terms of hardware will sell next gen phones around spring and the whole summer with several software updates in between . Microsoft's new Phone OS operates on a 1.0 version that is also confounded with multiple hardware configurations made by different phone manufacturers.

2) Microsoft would have done better to make it's own phone and mated it with it's Windows 7 Phone OS for three reasons, accountability, reliability and also the ability to take charge in regards to the quality of the product. Apple have problems with batches of iPhones that will not received calls, crashed all the time or just plain fail for no reason at all especially during software updates. Imagine Microsoft's dilemma when they are faced with phones from different brands doing the same thing. Pointing fingers would become the norm and the brand will suffer

3) Reliability, Stability and KISS ( Keep It Simple Stupid) . Do these three things exceptionally well and your own customers will do the marketing for you. Right now, Microsoft is not well trusted in regards to most of it's products . They have to make sure that perception will change and fast.

4) Do not compete on hardware or software specs to impress the tech geeks , compete for the ordinary users . Buzz words are BS if the ordinary user can't used them reliably in real situations.

Get someone with a clear vision , a viable and intelligent plan and the imagination as well as the personality to personally head the Windows Phone division . Get Steve Ballmer out of there.

Microsoft getting back into the game is a good thing for the industry as it keeps the other players on their toes. Competition and free markets are the essence of Capitalism.

That said, Microsoft is really going to have a tough time gaining a leadership position. They rested on their laurels for years (minus the Danger acquisition) and now find themselves in a vastly different market and technological landscape.

However, many companies have underestimated Microsoft at their own peril.

While true that iPhone OS 4.0 will out this summer, how would it be possible to make it dramatically different without also changing the dynamic of the iPad as well (as far as the UI goes).

I mean, I don't envision seeing anything as advanced as the new MS OS's interface this year. I mean, we have static (for the most part) buttons on our iPhone littered through pages and pages. Microsoft is using large tiles with dynamic pictures, message, Facebook status update, weather information, etc, within easy reach.

The move, visual wise, from the iPhone OS to the new Windows Phone 7 Series looks about as amazing as everything leading up to the iPhone and the actual announcement of the iPhone.

That being said, I'm giving MS the benefit of the doubt here. Most people just blindly bash MS, so my words are likely lost in the mix anyway

[CENTER]No... They aren't, and they ring extraordinarily true to the more rational in this forum.

Bottom Line: The ZUNE Phone has arrived, and it's a masterpiece.[/CENTER]

Huh... It'd never even crossed my mind to set the double tap to go to search... So OK, a search button is superfluous. But the iPhone search feature could be improved by being able to select whether to search the iPhone or the web - or selectively any app or web site (whichever app or website from which one enters search).

Holy crap! Never again will us Apple fanbois have to endure taunts of style over substance. That interface is just ridiculous. The hyperactive animations are SO annoying. "Gee. Those animations on the new Apple iPhone are cool. Lets AMP THEM UP TO 11!" Everything jiggles, twists, bounces, rotates; FOR NO REASON! Pointless eye-candy to the Max.

Seriously ridiculous. I understand the rationale behind the 'motion' and the 'floating' (kids of today, the 'cloud' etc) interface but the lack of a notional physical anchor and the partial obscuration of menu items to suggest off-screen content is just nuts. It doesn't work. They'll be studying this in HCI labs for years.

Seeing is believing, and so is actually using the device. Similar to the iPad, the design and interface is something that doesn't translate well through video and photos. To get a sense of how the UI will be, take a look at the Zune HD. I was a bit skeptical when I first tried it, comparing it to my iPhone, but I found the experience for a media device quite pleasant and wishing my iPhone did that.

Now, how that interface translates to a phone vs a media player is another question, but I seriously doubt what you see today will be the final implementation on launch later this year. The iPhone quickly evolved after its launch, as did Android. I think Microsoft has something big here.

2) Microsoft would have done better to make it's own phone and mated it with it's Windows 7 Phone OS for three reasons, accountability, reliability and also the ability to take charge in regards to the quality of the product. Apple have problems with batches of iPhones that will not received calls, crashed all the time or just plain fail for no reason at all especially during software updates. Imagine Microsoft's dilemma when they are faced with phones from different brands doing the same thing. Pointing fingers would become the norm and the brand will suffer

I agree with this as well. I wish Microsoft would just make its own-branded phone and leave the third parties out of it. Make it Microsoft through and through like the Zune or Xbox 360.

The only problem I can see is that they would be severing ties with a HUGE OEMs (Samsung, HP, HTC, etc.) to go this route. Windows Mobile 6.x may be the worst mobile OS out there, but these OEMs sell quite a bit of phones based on that OS -- this can be seen by MS's percentage of the overall mobile OS market. Windows Phone 7 Series would continue this trend.

The next logical thing most would say, however, would be "why don't the OEMs just switch to Android instead if Microsoft drops them?" I wonder that myself, but I don't know how easy it would be to just switch completely over to such an OS.

Huh... It'd never even crossed my mind to set the double tap to go to search... So OK, a search button is superfluous. But the iPhone search feature could be improved by being able to select whether to search the iPhone or the web - or selectively any app or web site (whichever app or website from which one enters search).

What's so difficult about having a web search app or icon on your main home screen if that's important to you? Just turn on the iPhone (one press) and hit, say, Google (or whatever) -- you're on web search!?

[CENTER]No... They aren't, and they ring extraordinarily true to the more rational in this forum.

Bottom Line: The ZUNE Phone has arrived, and it's a masterpiece.[/CENTER]

[CENTER]Wow. You... wow.

You know, aside from the obvious fact that your goal in commenting on Appleinsider is clearly to bash Apple and piss off people who enjoy using Apple's products, the idea that you can call a Zune phone a masterpiece 10 months before either the hardware OR software is predicted to be ready... well, you have officially lost the right to call anyone else a fanboy, ever.

Not that I think it will stop you. I've never understood people who have so much hate and anger inside them that they have to go find others to spew it upon. We get it. You hate Apple. You're doing us a huge favor by showing us how much better Microsoft does it. You're such an altruist, and your centered text is really just done to help us read better. Consider your mission accomplished, now you can go back to your village - they miss you.[/CENTER]

Well I watched the demo videos and I'm actually impressed. Best looking phone GUI by a country mile, and of course clearly taken from the very pretty Zube HD UI.

It will be interesting to see how this develops over the rest of the year, but from the videos at least, the bar has been raised. Makes the iPhone look awfully old fashioned, and I hope will force Steve to give in to the world of multi-tasking and widgets.

You know, aside from the obvious fact that your goal in commenting on Appleinsider is clearly to bash Apple and piss off people who enjoy using Apple's products, the idea that you can call a Zune phone a masterpiece 10 months before either the hardware OR software is predicted to be ready... well, you have officially lost the right to call anyone else a fanboy, ever.

Not that I think it will stop you. I've never understood people who have so much hate and anger inside them that they have to go find others to spew it upon. We get it. You hate Apple. You're doing us a huge favor by showing us how much better Microsoft does it. You're such an altruist, and your centered text is really just done to help us read better. Consider your mission accomplished, now you can go back to your village - they miss you.[/CENTER]

Kids these days, I swear.

[CENTER]Sure... Whatever (like you have any idea what I do or don't own).

That's why I own every 'major' Apple product released over the past 20 years.

Simply Put: Apple's not the only company capable of creating compelling products, and from what we've seen/heard today, MS has created a true game-changer in the mobile phone/media arena.[/CENTER]

The next logical thing most would say, however, would be "why don't the OEMs just switch to Android instead if Microsoft drops them?" I wonder that myself, but I don't know how easy it would be to just switch completely over to such an OS.

Frankly, the Zune has turned out worse than partnering with Windows Media licensees. It certainly doesn't make a profit for Microsoft, whereas Windows media licenses did. Except the problem was that the iPod was just such a unique product that nothing else on the market had, which was the UI. That's all that matters... well that and the way it integrates with the hardware. But some manufacturers on Android have caught up in the hardware integration part, they just have the UI to copy... which they can't because that's patented unlike parts of the Mac interface. The whole idea of the iPhone was to simplify the interface down to the bare minimum without making it ugly. And for that, the iPhone is damn near perfect.

Anyway, too much information overload on Windows mobile 7... and did anyone notice that the screens were partially cut off on the sides? What's up with that? It's like the Zune HD where some menu titles were cut off mid-word because they were too big for the screen to fit them

EDIT: I've decided I've hated the interface even more after watching the video because Windows Mobile is doing the same thing as the Zune HD with the menu titles as well as cut off screens

Microsoft getting back into the game is a good thing for the industry as it keeps the other players on their toes. Competition and free markets are the essence of Capitalism.

That said, Microsoft is really going to have a tough time gaining a leadership position. They rested on their laurels for years (minus the Danger acquisition) and now find themselves in a vastly different market and technological landscape.

However, many companies have underestimated Microsoft at their own peril.

That's my $.02...

True, but I think Microsoft has been setting themselves up for this. Think about it - what makes the iPhone such a success? Its the platform and the integration with your media. Microsoft, being the ultimate platforms company, has a strong foundation in games with their Live platform, and has been building Zune as its media platform, with integration as pleasant and easy as iTunes, if not better.

Microsoft already owns 18% of the smartphone marketplace in the US thanks to corporate sales, while Apple hovers around 25%. If Microsoft can take the best elements of Apple by limiting and controlling the hardware, and Google by opening the marketplace for the applications, you get an incredible device that has all the essential ingredients to take on the big two.

Guys, Game changer proclamations or proclamations of Massive Fail on devices that will not be out yet for two months or 10 months are truly pathetic. What may be good on a demo unit might not be good when people start buying a production unit 2 months or ten months from now. Right now, everything about the Windows Phone 7 are smoke and mirrors, same with the iPad, iPhone 4G and iPhone OS4, same with the next Goggle Phone. To be a True game changer, have the damn product out in the wild and we can discuss all about on how awesome or failure the said device one year after they are realeased.